Mindset Work: What is it?

I get this question all the time, and I always feel a bit bad because it makes me realize that I clearly haven’t explained what I mean by “mindset work.” Either that, or I explained it once and then failed to do so again whenever I talk about mindset work (this is more likely the case). I know I’ve explained it somewhere, but of course I can’t remember where, so I thought it was time to write a blog post that I can direct people to. So here we are!

What is mindset?

Table of Contents

First of all, let’s define “mindset.” It’s the set of beliefs, attitudes, fears, and blocks that each person holds. Our mindset can either support us and enhance our lives, or limit us and make things difficult.

There are two different overarching types of mindset: a growth mindset, and a fixed mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe that their basic qualities — such as intelligence, talent, and skills — are fixed traits. That means that they’ve got what they’ve got, and it can’t be changed. People with a growth mindset know that it’s possible to grow and evolve. Yes, we all start out with a certain level of intelligence and talent, but we can grow and develop ourselves through learning and acquiring new skills.

If you’re listening to my podcast or reading my blog, you probably have a growth mindset, because everything I talk about is very much related personal growth and development. And if you’ve actually got a fixed mindset and this all sounds really foreign to you, please drop me a line and let me know what specific questions you still have after reading this blog post.

Each individual has a totally different mindset that’s absolutely unique to them. For example, if I have issues with self confidence, my own personal flavor of low self confidence is going to be different from yours, or someone else’s. My individual beliefs and fears that make up my low self confidence will be different from anyone else’s.

Where does mindset come from?

Our mindset is made up of the sum of our life’s experiences, and it’s constantly evolving as we undergo new adventures in life. Our fears, blocks, beliefs, and attitudes come from a number of places:

Friends and family members
Authority figures, such as teachers, parents, religion
Media, and the things we read and consume for learning and entertainment
Life experiences, including traumas

Why is mindset important?

Our mindset filters how we see the world and defines the actions we take each day. As I said earlier, our mindset can either support us and enhance our lives, or limit us and make things difficult. If I believe that I have something interesting and useful to say that is of value to others, then it’s easier for me to write a blog post like this or to film a video for my YouTube channel. If I believe that I’m stupid and boring, then I’m not very likely to take the risk to share my thoughts on a blog or a video.

Having a mindset that supports us in life allows us to take the actions we need to take so we can live the lifestyle we want. It allows us to step up in a bigger way and take risks and get ourselves out into the world and achieve big things. Having a supportive mindset helps us to be successful in life.

Having an unsupportive, or limiting, mindset only serves to keep us stuck in life. Have you ever felt frustrated, blocked, and stuck? Like you’re going nowhere, and achieving nothing? That might very well be because your mindset is keeping you there: you don’t have the beliefs you need to take the actions you need to take to get where you want to go in life.

Subconscious & conscious mindset

You may be reading this and thinking “Oh no, I absolutely believe in myself. I’m smart enough. I do interesting things.” And maybe that’s true. But you’re probably only aware of what your conscious mind believes. And our conscious mindset is only part of what makes up the overarching mindset that rules our lives.

The other part is harder to access: our subconscious mindset. In addition to handling our basic body functions, the subconscious mind also handles the parts of the mind that we are not fully aware of, but which influence our actions, feelings, and emotions. The subconscious is responsible for our habits and patterns.

Our subconscious is also responsible for our self sabotage. It has all this information based on our life experiences stored in its long term memory, and it’s in charge of self preservation. This means that — based on the beliefs it holds — it can sometimes make rather illogical decisions or lead us to take illogical action in its effort to keep us safe and secure. If you ever feel like you’ve been sabotaging yourself, that’s your subconscious mindset just trying to keep you safe, stuck inside your comfort zone.

Our conscious mindset is easy to access; this is how we’re used to operating. The subconscious mindset, on the other hand, is a bit tricky, mostly because we’re not used to accessing this information. Once we learn how, it’s simple. The way I learned to access my subconscious beliefs is through muscle testing.

What is muscle testing

In my experience, the quickest and easiest way to communicate with the subconscious mind is through muscle testing. Muscle testing is an easy way for us to communicate directly with our own subconscious or with other people’s subconscious minds. The theory behind muscle testing is that when the mind is holding a stressful thought or belief, a conflict is created in the brain, and this produces a weak response in the body. You may have seen people do muscle testing by pressing down on another person’s outstretched arm. If you go online, you can find videos on how to do self muscle testing. This is also something I talk about in my books on business mindset (see the reading list at the end of this blog post).

How to know what your mindset is like

The easiest way to determine what your mindset is like is through muscle testing (see above). You can create belief statements, such as “I easily achieve my goals” or “I love and accept myself for who I am” and test whether or not you hold these beliefs at the subconscious level. From there, you’ll know exactly what you believe, what you don’t believe, and what you need to work on so you can change your mindset.

How to change your mindset

If you’ve done training in a technique that works at the subconscious level, you can work with yourself to reprogram your beliefs. If you’re new to changing beliefs at this deeper level, you might want to either work with someone else or train in a technique that you feel drawn to. Find the best technique for you: Heart-centered Energy Work®, PSYCH-K®, ThetaHealing®, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), TAT (Tapas Acupressure Technique), hypnotherapy, or something else. They’re all good.

My go-to techniques to use are PSYCH-K® and Heart-centered Energy Work®. What I like about these techniques is that they’re fast-acting, easy to use, forward-focused (they focus on what you do want, not what you don’t want), and they work with very specific beliefs and intentions.

Take action today

Research these different techniques
Give one a try by having a session with a professional
Find one you like, and then learn to do it yourself so you can always work with yourself to reprogram your mindset

Where to get help

If you want to work with me, the best way to get started would be to get in touch. I occasionally open up my calendar for sessions, and I give my Patrons first chance at the spots, then my newsletter subscribers. Do send me a message, though and see if I have any spots open.

If you’d like to work with someone else, or if I don’t have any available times in my calendar, please check out these fantastic facilitators. These are all women I know very well and have worked with before. I highly recommend them! Some of them work exclusively with PSYCH-K®; others work with a variety of methods. They all work with muscle testing.

From the podcast

I’ve got several episodes on “mindset work” and I think these are probably the best ones to listen to so you can get an idea of what I mean: